Winches have been commonly mounted on vehicles and used to perform a variety of tasks, such as dragging a large object while the vehicle is stationary or towing the vehicle itself by attaching the free end of the winch cable to a stationary object and reeling in the cable to pull the vehicle toward the object. Winches are particularly useful for off-road and utility vehicles. However, it is still desirable to enhance the functionality of winches in these types of applications.
More recently, it has been proposed to integrate the winch mechanism with an air compressor to provide additional utility as disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/149,492 which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. Briefly, the integrated air compressor and winch mechanism use a common drive motor for driving both the compressor and the winch mechanism. What is needed is a suitable control arrangement for operating the integrated air compressor and winch mechanism.
Therefore, a control arrangement is provided for an integrated compressor and winch assembly; the integrated assembly comprising: a clutch mechanically coupled to an electric motor and selectively engageable with at least one of a compressor or a winch mechanism; an electrical control circuit having an operational mode for controlling the compressor and another operational mode for controlling the winch mechanism; and a mode selector in communication with the clutch and the electrical control circuit, whereby actuating the mode selector actuates the clutch and selects an operational mode for the control circuit.
In another aspect of this disclosure, the control circuit employs two parallel circuit paths, such that the mode selector switch is engaged with either one of the two paths for selecting the operational mode of the integrated assembly. One of the circuit paths provides a switch for controlling the operation of the compressor while the other circuit path provides a switch for controlling the operation of the winch mechanism.
Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the description provided herein. It should be understood that the description and specific examples are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.